The Seattle paper The Stranger takes a great look at how drug laws and overzealous prosecutions make it more likely that people won't call 911 when a friend is overdosing. It even quotes our Director of DPA New Mexico, Reena Szczepanski. Hopefully the article will give a boost to "Good Samaritan" legislation that is pending in Washington State.

When mothers abandon their unwanted newborns—which happens with alarming frequency—they must decide whether to leave an infant in a Dumpster, where the child is likely to die, or in a public place, where the child's likelihood of survival is higher but so are the chances that the mother will be seen by witnesses, arrested, and prosecuted. The pandemic of abandoned newborns in the 1990s spawned a popular movement to declare emergency rooms and other medical facilities "safe havens" where mothers could abandon newborns without risking arrest. In 2002, the Washington State Legislature passed such a law.

A law that encourages people to call 911 when someone is overdosing would be grounded in the same impulse: It's better to save lives than to prosecute every crime. But saving the lives of newborn babies is an easy sell and saving the lives of drug users is not.

My life-altering "should-I-call-911-or-not" story told here.

Labels: Bill Piper, Overdoses